Privacy Policy

Effective October 16, 2026

This policy explains what Kinwarn (“we”, “us”) collects through the Kinwarn iPhone app and this website, and what we do with it.

The short version

• No accounts. Kinwarn never asks for your name. It asks for your email only if you turn on email in Kinwarn Plus, or if you want a reply to a problem you report.
• We keep the places you save so we can tell you when a warning covers them.
• No ads, no tracking, and we never sell your data.
• Delete a place in the app and it is deleted from our servers.

What Kinwarn collects

Places you save. The location of each place (rounded to about 35 feet), the short name you give it (like “Mom”), and the alert types you choose. We need these to check whether a National Weather Service warning covers the place. To match county and zone alerts, our server looks up each place’s county, forecast zone and time zone at api.weather.gov, sending only the coordinates.

Your device’s alert address. A random ID created by the app, a secret key (we store only a one-way hash of it), the push notification token Apple provides, and the app version. This lets us send alerts to your iPhone. It is not linked to your name, email or Apple Account.

Never your current location. Kinwarn never asks for your location. You type each address yourself, and alerts follow the places you saved, not where your iPhone is.

Your places in your own iCloud. The full address of each place stays on your iPhone; our servers get only the rounded location above. If iCloud is on, the app also keeps your places in your own iCloud account so they come back when you reinstall Kinwarn or move to a new iPhone. Apple stores this under your Apple Account. We cannot read it, and it never passes through our servers.

Phone numbers (Kinwarn Plus). If you turn on wake-up calls, we store the phone numbers you add (yours and up to four family members, mobile or home phones), their names, and the places they are linked to. When you add a family member’s number, you confirm in the app that they said yes to Kinwarn calls; we keep that sentence and the time you confirmed. Before we call a number for an alert, we place one verification call and the person presses 1 to agree. We keep the time of that agreement and the call record as proof of consent, along with the time anyone presses 9 to stop calls, or 7 to tell us we called the wrong number. Numbers that ask us to stop, and wrong numbers, go on a do-not-call list (the number and the date) so no one can make us call them again. Once Twilio approves this check for our account, before alert calls we check whether a number has been given to someone else since the person agreed, using the FCC’s reassigned numbers database through Twilio. We send only the number and the date of agreement, and use the answer until the database updates the next month. The person who added a number sees in the app whether calls to it were answered, and gets a notification if no one answers both calls about a warning or if the person presses 9. If no one answers both calls about a tornado warning, a tsunami warning or an evacuation order, we also call the number you added as your own.

Email (Kinwarn Plus). If you turn on email, we store the address you enter and send one email asking you to confirm it. We email you only after you tap Confirm: a short summary when a warning covers your places, and the storm risk the evening before. Every email has a link to stop. We keep a record of each email we send (the time and whether it was sent) to stay within daily limits and avoid duplicates.

Purchases (Kinwarn Plus). Apple handles payment; we never see your card. Your iPhone sends us the signed transaction from Apple so our server knows Plus is active: a transaction ID, the product, the expiration date, and whether it came through Family Sharing.

Delivery records. For each alert or call we send: which alert, which place, the time, and whether Apple or the phone network accepted it (for calls, whether it was answered). We use these to measure and improve speed and reliability.

Problem reports. If you use Report a problem in the app, we receive what you write, the type of problem, the email address you add (optional, only so we can reply), the alert you were looking at if you sent it from an alert, your device’s random ID, and app details: app version, iOS version, iPhone model, notification settings, whether Plus is active, how many places you saved, time zone and language. We use them only to answer you and fix the problem. They reach us as an email, sent through Resend, and are kept in our email inbox (Gmail).

Crash reports. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone settings, Apple shares anonymous crash reports with us. We do not use any third-party analytics or tracking tools.

How we use it

Only to run Kinwarn: to send alerts and calls, to confirm Plus, to prevent abuse (for example, limits on calls per number per day), and to find and fix delivery problems. We do not use it for advertising, we do not build profiles, and we do not sell or share personal information for advertising, as those terms are defined in California law.

Who else handles it

Service providers that process data for us only to run the service:

• Apple: push notifications, purchases, crash reports, and address search (the text you type when adding a place goes to Apple Maps)
• SignalWire and Twilio: phone calls; Twilio also for reassigned-number checks (Kinwarn Plus)
• Resend: sending email (Kinwarn Plus, and problem reports you send us from the app)
• DigitalOcean: our server, located in the United States (and Vultr, also in the United States, if we add a backup server)
• Cloudflare: network protection, caching, hosting of this website, forwarding of email sent to hello@kinwarn.com, and storage of our encrypted nightly server backups (Cloudflare cannot read them)
• Google: our email inbox (Gmail), where problem reports and email you send us arrive
• NOAA: if our server cannot be reached, the app loads radar images directly from NOAA, which sees your IP address

We may also disclose information if the law requires it.

How long we keep it

• Places and device data: until you delete them in the app. If the app is deleted, or notifications stay off and the app has not connected for 60 days, we delete that device’s data, unless the device is using an active Kinwarn Plus purchase. While notifications are on, we keep your places even if you rarely open the app, so warnings keep reaching you.
• Phone numbers: until you remove them, or 60 days after Plus ends. Call records keep the number for up to 1 year, and consent records for up to 5 years (below).
• Email address: until you remove it in the app, or 60 days after Plus ends. Email send records: 30 days.
• Purchase records: 60 days after Plus ends or is refunded.
• Consent records (including your confirmation that a family member said yes, and the verification call it came with), stop-call and wrong-number records, and the do-not-call list: up to 5 years, because U.S. calling laws require proof of consent and that we honor requests to stop.
• Delivery records: up to 1 year.
• Problem reports: 12 months.
• Server logs: 30 days. Logs show only the last 4 digits of phone numbers.
• Server backups: we keep the last 7 nightly backups, on the server and as encrypted copies stored with Cloudflare; older copies are deleted.

Your choices

• Delete a place or phone number in the app. It is removed from our servers the next time the app connects.
• Turn Kinwarn notifications off at any time in iPhone Settings.
• To stop keeping your places in iCloud, turn off iCloud for Kinwarn in iPhone Settings. Deleting a place in the app also deletes it from your iCloud.
• Anyone who gets a Kinwarn call can press 9, or call our number and press 9, to stop all future calls to that number. If we reached the wrong person, pressing 7 does the same.
• Use Report a problem in Kinwarn (Settings → About), or email hello@kinwarn.com, to see, correct, delete or get a copy of data tied to your device or phone number. Include the phone number, or send the request with Report a problem, which includes your device ID. We reply within 30 days. When we delete a number, we keep only what U.S. calling laws require (consent and stop-call records, and the number on our do-not-call list), and we will not call it again.
• If we decline your request, reply to our answer to appeal. We will answer the appeal within 60 days. If we deny it, you can contact your state attorney general.

Saved places are precise locations, which some state laws treat as sensitive data. We use them only to check whether a warning covers them. Saving a place is your consent; deleting it withdraws that consent. We do not sell personal data or use it for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of.

Children and age

Kinwarn is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Where state law requires it (for example, Texas), Kinwarn asks Apple for your age range when you open the app. We use it only to follow those laws. It stays on your iPhone while the app is open and is never sent to our servers. Warnings work the same at every age.

Security

Data is encrypted in transit. Our servers accept logins only with security keys, and secrets are stored with restricted access. No system is perfectly secure, so we keep only what the service needs.

Do Not Track

We do not track you across apps or websites, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to turn off.

This website

kinwarn.com uses no cookies and no analytics. Our host, Cloudflare, processes standard request data such as IP addresses to deliver and protect the site.

Changes

If we change this policy, we will update the date above. If a change is significant, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact

Kinwarn · hello@kinwarn.com